Geolographical Formation of Aspen Mountain

             Aspen Mountain is a small fragment of the larger surrounding Rocky Mountains. There has been much debate, and deliberation regarding the exact geological processes that formed the Rocky Mountains. We will discuss the most prevalent theory, regarding plate tectonics.There are two very large tectonic plates known as the Pacific Plate, and the North American plate. The Pacific plate moves north and the North American plate moves south along the fault line. As the Pacific plate began to move north approximately 300 million years ago, the crust over which it moved was forced down by the North American Plate, back towards the Earth's core in a process called plate convergence.

                                                       North American and Pacific Plates


             Along with this collision came extremely intense forces that began to compress the Western coast of North America. As the shockwave moved eastward, it forced colossal amounts of rock to crack and slide up over surrounding rocks. This process is called thrust faulting, and it was the strongest force driving the formation of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. The shock wave caused the western ranges to converge, followed by the main ranges approximately 200 million years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPy_bXNA-Y
Plate Convergence video.



            Once the Ancestral Rockies were formed, they slowly began to erode in a process called weathering. Weathering is the process that produces changes to the surface of rocks that have been exposed to both the atmosphere and hydrosphere, in most situations. This weathering caused large portions of the Ancestral Rockies to erode away, leaving large amounts of sedimentary rock. The current Rocky Mountains are comprised of this sedimentary rock left from the Ancestral Rockies, and newer rock that pushed its way through the surface and combined with the Ancestral sedimentary rock. Aspen Mountain is one of many beautifully formed mountains that make up the Rocky Mountains.

                                                        Maroon Bells. Aspen, Colorado

N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 20 Sep 2012. <http://visearth.ucsd.edu/VisE_Int/aralsea/images/fig1.gif>

SciVis - Plate Tectonic Project Oceanic - Continental Convergence Test. N.d. Video. youtube.com Web. 20 Sep 2012.

Cameron, Ward. "The Formation of the Rocky Mountains." Mountain Nature n.pag. Web. 20 Sep 2012.

Allen, Casey. Landforms Made by Faulting. clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu, Web. 20 Sep 2012.